Antonio Gramsci’s impact on critical pedagogy

This paper provides an account of Antonio Gramsci’s impact on the area of critical pedagogy. It indicates the Gramscian influence on the thinking of major exponents of the field. It foregrounds Gramsci's ideas and then indicates how they have been taken up by a selection of critical pedagogy exponents who were chosen on the strength of their identification and engagement with Gramsci's ideas, some of them even having written entire essays on Gramsci. The essay concludes with a discussion concerning an aspect of Gramsci's concerns, the question of powerful knowledge, which, in the present author's view, provides a formidable challenge to critical pedagogues.peer-reviewe

Near-field examination of perovskite-based superlenses and superlens-enhanced probe-object coupling

A planar slab of negative index material works as a superlens with sub-diffraction-limited imaging resolution, since propagating waves are focused and, moreover, evanescent waves are reconstructed in the image plane. Here, we demonstrate a superlens for electric evanescent fields with low losses using perovskites in the mid-infrared regime. The combination of near-field microscopy with a tunable free-electron laser allows us to address precisely the polariton modes, which are critical for super-resolution imaging. We spectrally study the lateral and vertical distributions of evanescent waves around the image plane of such a lens, and achieve imaging resolution of wavelength/14 at the superlensing wavelength. Interestingly, at certain distances between the probe and sample surface, we observe a maximum of these evanescent fields. Comparisons with numerical simulations indicate that this maximum originates from an enhanced coupling between probe and object, which might be applicable for multifunctional circuits, infrared spectroscopy, and thermal sensors.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, published as open access article in Nature Communications (see http://www.nature.com/ncomms/

Integração de métodos multicritério na busca da sustentabilidade agrícola para a produção de tomates no município de São José de Ubá-RJ.

Este estudo discute alternativas para os sistemas produtivos da terra no plantio de tomates em São José de Ubá-RJ e as relações de trabalho passíveis de serem colocadas em pratica de forma a promover uma agricultura sustentavel na região, priorizando os aspectos economicos, ambientais e culturais do problema. A introdução da questão cultural aumenta a complexidade da questão, sendo necessário o uso de uma metodologia capaz de lidar com toda a subjetividade envolvida nesse processo de tomada de decisão. O estudo visa contribuir para a conquista de um processo sustentavel na região, estabelecendo um processo de tomada de decisão pautado nas opinioes do agricultor, respeitando principalmente as questões culturais do problema. As características do ambiente de tomada de decisão indicaram o uso de uma combinação de métodos de apoio a decisão multicritério - MACBETH e VIP Analysis - para a seleção da melhor alternativa capaz de possibilitar o alcance dos objetivos propostos

Perceptions of primary healthcare professionals towards their role in type 2 diabetes mellitus patient education in Brazil

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of the current study was to analyze the perceptions, knowledge, and practices of primary healthcare professionals in providing patient education to people with type 2 diabetes mellitus.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 23 health professionals working in primary healthcare units in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, participated in a focus group in order to discuss their patient education practices and the challenges for effective patient education in diabetes self-management.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results were categorized as follows: 1) lack of preparation and technical knowledge among the health professionals on some aspects of diabetes mellitus and the health professionals' patient education practices; 2) work conditions and organization; 3) issues related or attributed to the clientele themselves; and 4) diabetes care model.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study highlights the importance of reorienting the patient education practices, health professionals' skills and work goals, and evaluation of the educational interventions, in order to establish strategies for health promotion and prevention and control of the disease.</p> <p>Descriptors</p> <p>Health Education; Prevention of Diabetes Mellitus; Primary Healthcare</p

Rarity of monodominance in hyperdiverse Amazonian forests.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors

Qualidade de alface crespa cultivada em sistema orgânico, convencional e hidropônico.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a qualidade da alface do grupo crespa, cv. Vera, em sistemas de cultivo orgânico, convencional e hidropônico em Rio Branco-AC. O experimento foi conduzido em julho de 2009. As amostras dos sistemas, convencional e hidropônico (3 marcas comerciais), foram escolhidas aleatoriamente nos supermercados do município de Rio Branco, no mesmo dia de coleta da alface produzida em sistema orgânico. A alface orgânica, produzida na área experimental do Setor de Agricultura Ecológica da Universidade Federal do Acre (UFAC), em Rio Branco, foi cultivada em estufa, sob plantio direto utilizando folhas de bambu como cobertura do solo, e adubada com composto orgânico (17 t ha-1 em base seca). O delineamento utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado, com cinco tratamentos e quatro repetições compostas por três plantas. As amostras foram lavadas, cortadas e processadas com folha e caule, para obter o suco. Logo após foram determinados os teores de sólidos solúveis e a concentração de nitrato e ácido ascórbico. As três marcas de alface hidropônica apresentaram maior teor de nitrato e menor concentração de sólidos solúveis e ácidos ascórbico, enquanto a alface orgânica apresentou qualidade superior, com baixa concentração de nitrato e maior teor de ácido ascórbico